My rape terror at hands of Somali pirates: New ordeal for British hostage as yacht couple face being starved to death

The British woman being held by Somali pirates has told how she narrowly escaped being raped.

In a brief, anguished phone call, 56-year-old Rachel Chandler described cowering in terror as one of the gang burst into her tent.

Her husband Paul, 59, was being kept in a different pirate hideout, so she was utterly alone and unprotected.

Alone: An upset Rachel Chandler told a Somali journalist how a gang member burst into her tent to try and rape her

But she was saved at the last moment when other guards returned and stopped the would-be rapist.

The grim revelation came as the pirates threatened to starve the couple to death and accused the British Government and people of abandoning them because they are 'old'.

Mrs Chandler, kidnapped with her husband last October, spoke about her ordeal in a snatched mobile phone conversation with a Somali journalist with sources inside the pirates' camp.

He said: 'She was obviously very upset but did not have time to say much more before the phone was taken away'.

The Nairobi-based reporter, who has proved a reliable source of information about the Chandlers' plight, said: 'After I spoke to her, one of the other guards told me that this guy has now been transferred to another job and will not be allowed near Mrs Chandler again.

'But she is still afraid and said that all four of the pirates guarding her have been beating her, even though they objected to the sex attack.'

Isolated: Paul Chandler is examined by Somali doctor Abdi Mohamed Helmi, who recommended that the couple be reunited

Mrs Chandler, last seen in a video released last month, was already painfully thin and suffering from anxiety and depression.

Last night a 'spokesman' for the pirates refused to discuss the incident.

But he ramped up their propaganda campaign by launching an extraordinary attack on Britain's moral values.

The man said the Chandlers could be freed if everyone in Britain contributed 'just one dollar' towards a ransom - their demands have varied between £ 1.9million and £4.4million since the kidnap.

But this would never happen, the pirate said, because the British had no compassion for 'old' people and did not really want them back.

He also attacked the UK government for abandoning the couple and warned that the pirates would stop feeding them if the money was not paid soon.

The video released last month showed a doctor examining Mrs Chandler, an economist. He said she was suffering from malnutrition as well as psychological problems.

The Chandlers, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, were captured on October 23 while sailing their yacht Lynn Rival from the Seychelles towards Tanzania.

Looking healthy: The Chandlers in Kerala, India - the adventurous couple from Tunbridge Wells had been on a round-the-world trip when captured by pirates

Their middle-class family appears to have no way of paying a seven-figure ransom and the UK government has said it will not deal with the pirates on the grounds that it would encourage future kidnaps of Britons.

But the pirates' spokesman sneered that these were lame excuses for Britain's lack of compassion.

'It is said that they are a poor family - but one poor family can help another poor family,' he said.

'Why don't you help them? If each one person in the UK pays just one dollar that would be enough money.

'These two people are old and poor, and that is why you don't care if they come home. You don't want old, poor people in your country.

'They will die here until they pay the money, that's for sure.'

In an interview with the Daily Mail last month, one of the pirates threatened that the Chandlers would be shot this month if the ransom was not delivered.

Yesterday, however, the spokesman said they would be starved to death.

'We are not cruel,' he added. 'But if we find that no-one from the family or the British government will talk to us, we can't help this man and woman.

'They have been abandoned by their own people.'

• Somali pirates yesterday released a Taiwanese tuna fishing boat hijacked in April last year. Three of the 27-strong crew had died during their captivity.

A Kenya-based organisation which monitors shipping in Somali waters said there were 217 acts of piracy last year in which 47 commercial vessels were hijacked and 867 crew members taken hostage.

By the end of the year pirates were hoding 12 vessels and 263 crew members of various nationalities.

Two of the ships were British-flagged, but there were no Britons among their crews.